How to Visit the Northernmost Point of Africa – Cape Angela – Tunisia

Want to visit the Northernmost Point of the African mainland, at Ras En Jela (رأس أنجلة) or Cape Angela in Tunisia, then this blog post is for you.

I’ll show you where to find the minivans that will take you most of the way and where to find the path that leads you to Ras en Jela.

Cape Angela: Northernmost Point of the African mainland on Google Maps:

Cape Angela is the English name. Cap Angela and even Cap Engela are the names in French. Ras en Jela is the anglicised version of the Arabic name: رأس أنجلة.

How to get to Cape Angela from Tunis

The trip is done in two stages:

1. Louage from Tunis to Bizerte
2. Bizerte to Cape Angela

1. Tunis to Bizerte

Louages to Bizerte depart from just in front of the Gare Routière Nord, Bab Saadoun in Tunis:

Louages are nine-seater minivans. With the need for only eight passengers, they fill up very quickly. A God-Send. The driver quoted 6 Dinar, but a fellow passenger said that it was 5,300. Either way, it’s cheap. Less than 2 Euros for the 64 km, 1-hour journey (prices from 2020).

The arrival point in Bizerte is the Bizerte – Tunis Bus Station:

From there, it is a 2 km walk to Bizerte’s centre.

I was travelling with a travel buddy from the Auberge de Jeunesse (YHA) in Tunis.

We walked into town. About 30 minutes or so. We made a beeline for the old port and took an overpriced coffee at one of the cafes there. It’s a good place for people-watching, enjoying the warmth of the sun.

​We walked up through the Kasbar to the Spanish Fort, which has been turned into a modern-day amphitheatre used for festivals.

2. Bizerte to Cape Angela

Back in the centre, I was gonna check up on hotel prices at the cheap-looking Hotel African, but there was no one on reception, so we snuck into the Restaurant African next door and had Cous-Cous Chicken for just 6 Dinar.

There was no information on how to get to Cape Angela. We had reckoned we’d need a taxi to get to Ras En Jela, but I had an idea.

I showed the lady in the restaurant the Arabic name on Google Maps, and she immediately started asking the locals.

It was quite hard for them to actually tell us where we had to go, so she got her husband (?) to take us through the narrow streets to a roundabout where there were louages to Cap Angela, which is now pinpointed on Google Maps:

Our new friend talked to a driver of the appropriate louage and we climbed in. Within minutes, we were on our way.
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And here we had another stroke of luck. There is a cluster of houses loosely situated along the road next to Cape Angela , and this was the endpoint of the louage route.

The ride was 1,100 Dinar and took 30 minutes for the 15 km.

This is the spot where we were let out:

​Then it was just a 20-minute walk down a sandy track to the Northernmost Point of the African mainland:

The Northernmost Point of the African Mainland, Ras Angela

Just to reiterate, the uninhabited Galite Islands off the coast of Tunisia are known as the Northernmost Point of Africa. Ras en Jela is the Northernmost Point of the African mainland:

​The ride back to Bizerte and on to Tunis went without a hitch. At 6 pm, we’re back in town, so it is an easy day trip from the capital.

What I had thought would be quite a mission had turned out to be very easy indeed. Blessed with good weather, and the fact that we chose the restaurant in Bizerte that we did.